ST LOUIS (AP) – Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has cut $172 millionfrom Missouri’s budget, including state aid for public schools anduniversities.

The cuts announced Friday include an $8 million reduction instate busing aid to public school districts, nearly $17 million inbasic aid to colleges and universities and $3 million in collegescholarships.

The total also includes $100 million in continued cuts tocollege building projects funded with money from Missouri’s studentloan authority. Those projects already have been on hold for acouple years.

The cuts include $57 million from the state’s general revenues -an amount that roughly equals the $50 million of disaster aid Nixonhas committed for flooding in southeast Missouri and the deadlytornado that hit Joplin.